Mary Poppins (Jane and Michael)

[Icbanannie]

Posted: 5/31/05 at 12:50pm

I just visited the Mary Poppins site and saw that there are 12 children who rotate the roles of Michael and Jane. I have heard fo double or triple casting, but 6 different pairs of children!! Are there severe laws in London about child actors on the stage and how many times they can perform a week. It just seems like a lot of children for only 2 roles. And with 8 performances a week, hardly any stage time.

[Practically Perfect]

Posted: 5/31/05 at 1:27pm

The laws in England are very different to the laws in America - a child performer can do every performance, I beleive, in America, is this correct?
In England they can only perform a set number of hours a week, and cannot work beyond 10.30 at night. In one performance there were technical problems which held the show up for about 15-20 minutes, and thus the children could not perform the final scene - it would be very strange without them, but I won't give it away to those who haven't seen the show.
Thus, there are 6 sets of children who perform each week, and you can never be sure who you see playing Jane and Michael Banks.
But all the children are great, and you'd be lucky to see any of them.

Mary P x

[Icbanannie]

Posted: 5/31/05 at 1:44pm

Wait....you said you are never sure who you are seeing....you mean they don't tell you each night who is playing the children??? Thats so strange. You just have to guess??

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 5/31/05 at 1:49pm

It's 11pm that is the curfew for child performers. The night you are talking about, the show stopped for almost an hour and didn't finish until 11:25pm.

And every night, the cast board in the foyer is changed to display the names of the children performing, but no announcements are made beyond that.

[Practically Perfect]

Posted: 5/31/05 at 2:36pm

Sorry, what I meant was you never know who is performing until you get to the performance and see their names on the board at the Theatre.

Mary P x